The Fat of the Land eBook

Anderson was good and faithful, and he would work
his arms and legs off for the pigs; but the spirit
of unrest entered every herd which he kept, though
neither he nor I saw it clearly enough to go and “tell
it in the city.” With other swineherds
my hogs averaged from fifteen to eighteen pounds better
than with faithful Anderson, and I am, therefore,
competent to speak of the gross weight of the spirit
of contentment.

CHAPTER XLI

STRIKE AT GORDON’S MINE

Frank Gordon owned a coal mine about six miles west
of the village of Exeter, and four miles from Four
Oaks. A village called Gordonville had sprung
up at the mouth of the mine. It was the home of
the three hundred miners and their families,—­mostly
Huns, but with a sprinkling of Cornishmen.

The houses were built by the owner of the mine, and
were leased to the miners at a small yearly rental.
They were modest in structure, but they could be made
inviting and neat if the occupants were thrifty.
No one was allowed to sell liquor on the property
owned by the Gordons, but outside of this limit was
a fringe of low saloons which did a thriving business
off the improvident miners.

There had never been a strike at Gordonville, and
such a thing seemed improbable, for Gordon was a kind
master, who paid his men promptly and looked after
their interests more than is usual for a capitalist.

It was, therefore, a distinct surprise when the foreman
of the mine telephoned to Gordon one July morning
that the men had struck work. Gordon did not
understand the reason of it, but he expressed himself
as being heartily glad, for financial reasons, that
the men had gone out. He had more than enough
coal on the surface and in cars to supply the demand
for the next three months, and it would be money in
his pocket to dispose of his coal without having to
pay for the labor of replacing it.

During the day the reason for the strike was announced.
From the establishment of the mine it had been the
custom for the miners to have their tools sharpened
at a shop built and run by the property. This
was done for the accommodation of the men, and the
charge for keeping the tools sharp was ten cents a
week for each man, or $5 a year. For twenty years
no fault had been found with the arrangement; it had
been looked upon as satisfactory, especially by the
men. A walking delegate, mousing around the mine,
and finding no other cause for complaint, had lighted
upon this practice, and he told the men it was a shame
that they should have to pay ten cents a week out
of their hard-earned wages for keeping their tools
sharp. He said that it was the business of the
property to keep the tools sharp, and that the men
should not be called upon to pay for that service;
that they ought, in justice to themselves and for the
dignity of associated labor, to demand that this onerous
tax be removed; and, to insure its removal, he declared
a strike on. This was the reason, and the only
reason, for the strike at Gordon’s mine.
Three hundred men quit work, and three hundred families
suffered, many of them for the necessities of life,
simply because a loud-mouthed delegate assured them
that they were being imposed upon.